Chuck Sweeny: Rockford church shelter is actually second to have city close it

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Rockford Register Star

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Posted Mar. 29, 2014 at 2:00 PM
Updated Mar 29, 2014 at 2:29 PM

Posted Mar. 29, 2014 at 2:00 PM
Updated Mar 29, 2014 at 2:29 PM

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ROCKFORD – A petition drive by the online community Faithful America collected 25,000 signatures supporting the warming shelter run during the winter by the Apostolic Pentecostals of Rock...

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ROCKFORD – A petition drive by the online community Faithful America collected 25,000 signatures supporting the warming shelter run during the winter by the Apostolic Pentecostals of Rockford that was ordered closed this month by the city.

The petitions will be taken to Rockford City Hall at 11 a.m. Monday during an event to urge the city to allow the shelter to continue operating.

Down in a part of southeast Rockford where the city has not installed modern streets with curbs and gutters, the Rev. Dave Fredericks pastors a church called Apostolic Pentecostals of Rockford, 840 Mattis Ave. (He’s also a barber with a shop in Poplar Grove and one on North Rockton Avenue.)

Fredericks saw a problem — homeless people and a bitter winter — and decided to be part of the solution. He opened the church at 8 p.m. to people who needed a decent place to spend the night. Fredericks’ motivation was Matthew 25, which advises Christians they must care for “the least of these” in society.

Fredericks would take a van to the lobby of the Winnebago County Justice Center and pick up people who were there to get out of the cold. They weren’t allowed to rest on the floor, but they could sit in chairs. The sheriff’s deputies appreciated him taking the homeless out of the lobby, he said.

“We started out Nov. 7, with 12 to 15 people, and it grew to from 30 to 35. Sometimes we had more than 50,” said Fredericks.

Every night, the homeless were given a meal, and at 9:30 p.m. the church had a prayer service. It was lights out at 10:30 p.m. Someone from the church was awake all night to make sure all were safe. All were required to leave the next morning. I asked him, who were these people?

“One guy has a Ph.D in research and development and has had a hard time finding a job here; another gentleman has a bachelor’s in IT. Another woman has a master’s in business administration,” Fredericks said. “One guy owned a roofing company, another was a building contractor; another is a CNC operator. And then we had people who have been on the street for years. The mix was about 50-50. You’d think the city would want you to work with these people, to get them back on their feet.”

In the middle of one cold, winter night, one of the church’s overnight guests thought he was having a heart attack. So the church called 911. The Fire Department arrived, and thus began the city of Rockford’s awareness of the shelter.

Soon, three city officials came to the church to meet with Fredericks.

“They said, ‘You don’t have correct zoning to do what you’re doing. You’d have to have a sprinkler system.’ I said, ‘We’re a church, and we don’t have to do all that. We have people who are awake here all night. People can get out’” in an emergency, Fredericks said.

Page 2 of 3 - “I said, ‘What if I put in sprinklers?’ And they said, ‘No, you still don’t have the zoning.’ I said, ‘Well, we’ll have all-night prayer meetings then,’ and they said, ‘No.’ They told us we’d have to close March 10.”

The city of Rockford issued a news release March 25, which said in part: “After six weeks of discussion with city officials, when the church had failed to complete the required steps to comply with the (special use permit), the city requested that they cease operations.”

That’s not how Fredericks remembers it.

“The city never said anything about rectifying the problems. They didn’t try to work with us at all. They just shut it down.”

Fredericks said that the attitude of the officials who met with him “was like, if you enable these people, they’ll stay, and if you make it hard for them, they’ll go someplace else.”

This isn’t the only time that city officials have ordered a church to stop housing homeless people. In 2010 and 2011, the Rev. Wayne Ahrens, pastor of Five Gates Church, 821 Fourth Ave., saw a similar need after a building on Broadway was condemned, leaving some people with nowhere to go. They were looking for a tent in order to join up with a tent village of similarly homeless people in Rockford.

“We prayed about it and felt led to open the church; we couldn’t let them be out in the cold,” Ahrens said. “We didn’t advertise; we thought we were providing a service that was needed.”

At one point Five Gates was providing shelter to 20 to 35 people a night. They were building a unique faith community.

“They looked out for one another,” Ahrens said.

Law enforcement trusted him.

“The police would actually drop people off with us,” Ahrens said.

As with Fredericks’ church, someone was awake during the night to make sure people were safe. Ahrens said did he did not allow people who had outstanding warrants with the police to stay there.

One day, Ahrens found an orange sticker on Five Gates’ door telling him he was in violation of city codes.

He called City Hall, where officials told him “I would have to get sprinklers, which was cost-prohibitive.” Officials also told him he lacked proper zoning.

He shut the overnight shelter.

Ahrens doesn’t question the city’s rules, and he said city officials agreed that he was serving a need. He believes that when God closes one door, he opens another.